Tadpole to a Frog - Fascinating Metamorphoses!

When a frog egg hatches, it starts the beginning of the journey of a tadpole into a frog. Unlike most other animals, frogs start off as tadpoles and then evolve into frogs later on in life. Tadpoles are small creatures which swim in the water and look a little like tiny fish. There are usually many many that hatch almost at the same time, and is clear and has a black spot on them. It only has three parts it; a mouth, gills and a tail. Tadpoles will usually eat in the first seven days of its life, the egg yolk which is remaining in its gut. During the course of the following seven days, tadpoles will start to swim around in the water and will start to eat other things, such as algae found floating on the water surface. During the course of the next four weeks, it is truly fascinating to see the development of a tadpole. They will start to grow teeth and skin will start to form covering their gills. During this time it is usual that they swim in schools, very similar to traits found amongst other fish. The next six to nine weeks will see the further development of the tadpoles with them growing much longer in size and the emergence of a head and legs will start to become visible. At the end of the nine weeks, the tadpole will look a lot more than a frog than a tadpole or fish, but is interesting to see that they will still have a long tail at this stage. They will, from this stage on, start picking up more frog like traits, such as eating small insects rather than algae, which is a trait seen more in fish. Another interesting point is that the length of time it will take for the cycle of the tadpole to turn into a frog will take longer depending on the season of the year. For example, in the Winter months, in places with high altitudes and where a particular area suffer very cold months, the cycle is thought to take much longer than outlined above. In such circumstances, it is common for it to take all Winter for a tadpole to transform into a frog. The next stage of the cycle is the final stage of the transformation from a tadpole to a frog. Between nine and twelve weeks, the tadpole will continue to change its appearance to truly take the form of a frog. It now looks like a frog, but with a long tail, and is called a froglet. It's tail will start to shorten whilst its tongue will grow to resemble that of a frog. It will then look exactly like a frog, but a baby one. It is thought that this is the stage whereby the cycle of a tadpole to a frog is completed. For the next four weeks, the frog will grow, as is seen with other animals when they are born, from a baby frog into an adult frog. This is the usual cycle, unless it is altered due to weather conditions and climates, as mentioned above.